Odd request
 

I was carrying some heavy hardware in my passenger's seat a few days ago to fix a shelf in my girlfriend's apartment which probably wasn't the best idea in the world. Anyways, a completely freak accident occurred which still has me baffled. I came to a rather abrupt stop as the vehicle in front of me slammed on their brakes and the metal chest in my passenger's seat literally flew into my radio. Somehow it managed to take out only the "4" button on my radio.

When I surveyed the damage the "4" button was loose and fully depressed. With the help of a flat head I wriggled the button out to find that the plastic "leg", which was the part the made contact with whatever device changes the station inside the radio, had come off the back of the button along with the "hinges" on top of the button.

With my infinite wisdom I next made two fatal mistakes. Number 1, I tried to remove the "5" to see how the button looks unharmed and broke the "hinge" part (which fell into the radio and presumably into oblivion) off the top while trying to replace it. Secondly, I super glued the broken "4" parts back onto the button and slipped it into its spot and somehow knocked some other internal piece off the actuator(?) inside the radio as the button still depresses and does nothing.

As you can see this is just one fvck up after another that has me very peeved which leads me finally to my questions. Where could I locate parts on line for our radio without buying a completely new head unit? My grandfather called the junk yard to no avail unforetunately. Does anyone have enough experience with our radio unit to know what the hell is missing on the iside that makes the "leg" of my button too short to have any effect? Finally, would my dealership be reasonable at all at fixing this without screwing me royally? My local dealer is Paul Miller Ford Mazda which is supposedly some specially recognized Mazda dealer in customer service so I don't know if that has any bearing. Sorry also for not having pictures I didn't get back to my PC until late and didn't feel like going out to brave the cold at night to snap a few shots. I will post them at anyone's request that is willing to help. Thanks guys.

I see a new head unit in your future. Sorry man, that's a bummer.

While you're buying a new head unit you might as well get the mp3 version.

you could try paul at mazmart, see if he could do anything for you.

Here are a few pics of just the faceplate for the head unit. ;)

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4149/dscn1914ex0.jpg

There are a plethera of screws that hold this to the head unit. :lol:


http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7615/dscn1915ok8.jpg

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/2197/dscn1919bu9.jpg


Hope that helps.

Thanks man that helps a lot actually. Looks like this weekend I'm going to try to take the face plate off; I should have better success that way. How tricky was it to pop off the reddish black panels below and above the radio buttons to get to the individual screws?

I believe you have to take the entire head unit out to take the face off.

DIY: https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...=diy+head+unit

Yep, because there are 4 screws on the bottom of the face for the head unit and at least 4 on the back of the face.

Bad luck—kinda thing that I thought only happens to me.
Don't know if it would help in the future, but whenever I have "stuff" on a seat, I always "buckle it up" with the seatbelt—if it'll fit—as if it were a passenger.

I do the same thing.

Seem to always get a chuckle when I pick a PC up at a client's place and they see me buckle it in. :lol:

Another ditto - I buckle potentially hazardous stuff to prevent such a thing.

Slightly related - one of the most dangerous projectile objects inside a car in a crash is an unbuckled infant/toddler car-seat. Admittedly I used to let the thing rattle around unbuckled if I was swapping it from car to car and it was not in use - then one day I realized what a hazard it was.

Good luck putting it all back together Zielritter. According to those pictures it looks like the 4 and 5 buttons have slightly different actuators. I you need parts I suggest browsing backwards through the FOR SALE forum and looking at the folks parting out wrecked cars. You might be able to get a non-functional head-unit which has the plastic buttons intact for a cheap price.

I would guess that the dealer replacing the whole head-unit would be outrageous cost ($2,000?) so I hope you don't have to resort to that.

in regards to HU prices, a refurbished one will run you $600: a new one is $1000.

i think parted out cars are really the best option without raping your wallet.

tho i have to say, your description was fabulously written ... i could picture that happening to me as i was reading it ...

omg lol

Thanks everyone (especially supercharge for the link and pics), I think I'm gonna hook up the space heater in the garage this weekend, remove the head unit, and try to fix what I can with super glue (hopefully things will be easier once I remove the unit and get the face plate off) and maybe fabricate something to fix the button that has a missing piece. I usually seat belt in things like my p.c. and even my laundry basket when transporting them, but I was in a hurry and just tossed in the tools carelessly. Won't be making that mistake any time again in the future. Oh well, live and learn. I'll fill you all in on how the repair goes.

Don't drop the bolt in the back that holds the head unit in. ;)

I still have to find mine...

A little update....
 

So after much pulling, prodding, and unscrewing we managed to get the face plate off without pulling out and disconnecting the entire radio. All that hell for two damn buttons was all I could think of after the fact. Anyways, it looks like the little spring loaded device on the board in the radio that completed the circuit and allowed me to switch to channel "4" was obliterated by the chest impact and is no where to be found.

My grandfather, who is very mechanically savvy imho, says we can rig some sort of replacement mechanism with a heavy sponge and a metal plate that will allow the button to complete the channel changing circuit when the "4" is depressed (well find out on Tuesday). As far as the broken buttons are concerned, I used some plastic epoxy on the broken pieces of the "4" and since I could not find the broken knob on the "5" I will be attempting to dremel mold unformed epoxy goo that is at this moment drying on top of the button. Hopefully I can shape it into some semblance of the original knob that allowed to button to pivot while staying in place.

All of this talk probably makes no sense to anyone who's never painstakingly disassembled this monstrosity of a radio, but I'm exhausted from it. I nearly gave up twice trying to pull the damn thing out, but hey, I didn't lose the side bolt that Mazda evidently tried to make as inaccesible as possible. I'll let everyone know how it turns out on Tuesday hopefully.

That's too bad about the button on the board being destroyed.

Every once in a while a head unit pops up in the for sale section here.

Me too.

any way you could get a new spring from a hobby shop? they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes ...